by Tara Oakes
IF I DONT HEAR FROM U IM GONNA HAVE
TO CALL JAY.. HE'S GONNA FLIP HIS SHIT IF I
DO THAT. PLEASE PLEASE TEXT ME!!!
I checked the time stamp on the last text. It was sent two minutes ago. Fuck! What if I was too late? I quickly sent a reply text to the number on the screen.
ME: HEY T.J. DIDN'T GET TEXTS TILL NOW
I had to wait barely a moment before I got a response
UNKNOWN: THANK GOD! JUST DIALING JAY..
WHERE THE FUCK R U?
ME: RAN ERRANDS. I'M AT THE DRUG STORE ON
MAIN STREET WAITING ON MEDS
UNKNOWN: STAY THERE
I'M ON MY WAY
Hopefully I got to him in time before he called Blue or Jay. I sat down on the stone bench and took a deep breath. That was close. The last thing I needed was a pissed off Jay breathing down my neck right now. Looking for a distraction from the last bit of craziness, I dialed and held the phone to my ear.
"Hey Julia! Where you been" The call answered on the third ring.
Emily was my roommate from sophomore year, when I transferred here. She was a real sweetheart and we've become close friends. "Em, I just got back last night... stayed a little longer than I planned on, catching up with people."
I heard a gasp on the far end of the phone "Wait... catching up with who? You saw him didn't you!" Hmmm. Let me think about how to answer this. Technically I did see him, all of him.
"It's a long story Em. Let's meet later at the Drunken Co-Ed before everyone heads out. I've got a friend with me from back home.. I want to show her a little bit of town before she leaves."
Emily knew everything about Jay and I. She had seen me at the rawest point fresh after I had left him to move here and start a new life. She had handed me the tissues when I was bawling my eyes out over him, talked me down from giving in and calling him on more than one occasion and eventually acted as my wingman when I was on the rebound. There was a short time where I was rebounding just a bit too hard and Emily had helped to give me a guy intervention before things got out of hand.
"You did!!!! I knew you would. Eventually anyway. I want to know everything." Emily was a loyal friend but she was also a sappy romantic at heart. She always played devils advocate when it came to Jay. She had never met him but had fallen in enviable lust with his picture and declared that 'no man that fine should ever be walked away from' at least a few dozen times.
I smiled in to the phone. "Emily... I'll fill you in, I promise. Meet me at the Co-Ed at nine. Do me a favor? Call Jessica too. S he didn't answer before and I've got a ton of crap to do."
Her deflating tone was almost as funny as her teenage style boy frenzy. "All right, all right. Nine. But I want details. And pictures if you have them, but lots and lots of details." We ended the call just in time for me to greet the motorcycle rider pulling up to a screeching halt in front of me.
"Holy crap that was fast.... be careful T.J., this place is crawling with ticket friendly campus police that would just love to lock your ass up." I barely had time to stand to my feet before T.J. had dismounted and shaken out his helmet confined hair.
He stood tall but I noticed that he was flushed. I also noticed the lipstick around his neckline and that his t-shirt was on inside out. "Lil's why the fuck did you run off? I could have caught so much fuckin’ shit from Jay over this. Thank god it was nothing. Please, please, please don't tell anyone about this. I really don't need them jumping all over my ass because I lost sight of you."
The poor guy was visibly upset. I could understand why, too. I remember when Jay and Tiny were prospecting. They had fucked up on more than one occasion and been raked over the coals for it. I know it’s part of the process and kind of a right of passage but I liked T.J. and I didn't want to see him fall out of the good graces of the club for something that may or may not have been my fault.
I smiled. "Don't mention it. It'll be our little secret. So tell me, how was your first sorority girl? She live up to her reputation?" I joked with him. I had never seen such obvious display of post coital disarray before.
T.J. laughed. "Who said she was my FIRST sorority girl?, but damn I think I like college."
I rolled my eyes. He had definitely lived up to the Kingsmen standard. "I can't even.." I made an over the top gagging impression. "Let me go check and see if my order is ready. I'll be back in a minute."
The Pharmacist had my little white bag ready on the shelf when It became my turn at the register. He scanned a barcode, and I paid the man the $68.43 that he asked for, taking my sack of meds.
T.J. saw that I was carrying a medium sized bag and began fumbling to open the side saddle of his bike. He reached out to take the paper package from me, as I nervously grasped on to it. He wasn't expecting such resistance, so when he pulled the bag, it tore apart and the contents spilled onto the concrete beneath us.
I practically threw myself down to pick up the items before he could get to them, but damn, the boy had quick reflexes and beat me. He absent mindedly picked up the bottle of pre-natal vitamins and held them out to me with one hand while his other picked up the colored packaged that was very clearly labeled 'PLAN B".
FUCK. T.J. looked at the medications briefly before registering the meaning of what he held, when his eyes shot up to mine. "Lil's..... "
I grabbed my things back from him and added a slight coldness to my voice. "If you don't want Jay to find out that you were too busy fucking a cheerleader in a short skirt to keep an eye on your mark, you'll keep your mouth shut about this T.J."
He swallowed hard and handed me back the items in question.
******
Sunny had almost everything of mine packed and labeled in cardboard boxes when we got back to the apartment. T.J. was keeping a small distance between us, undoubtably scared form my earlier threat. But, he managed to smile genuinely at me whenever I caught his glance in passing. He had always been polite to me, but I noticed a slight uptick in his chivalry over the course of the afternoon. He took every opportunity had could to open a door, offer to get me a drink, open a window, close a window, or turn on the air conditioner.
At this rate, either my little secret was going to be uncovered or he was going to get his ass beat from the guys thinking he was a little too sweet on another club members girl. I would need to talk to him and get him to turn it down ten notches before anyone noticed.
Blue ran out and got us some sandwiches from the corner store while we finished the packing. Taking our lunch outside to the porch area we sat down and took a meal break. Sunny set out an old blanket for us and we basked in the mid afternoon daylight enjoying our subs and discussing the lack of fashion sense that college girls were showing these days. Sunny, being the fashionista that she was, noticed that all of my neighbors had barely combed their hair and were still wearing sweats at three in the afternoon.
Looking down at myself self consciously, I wondered where she thought I fit in with the girls I was surrounding myself with. I had on dark stretch capris and a tank top. My hair was piled high in a pony and I had put on just the basic amount of makeup before slipping out to my exam this morning..a little bit of blush, some mascara and tinted lip balm. I didn't want to tell Sunny that this was actually a slight step up from my usual weekday attire.
Blue sat down in the lawn chair near us, and took a bite of his lunch. "I know what you mean Sun... Do they actually think a man is going to look twice at them like this? I mean don't get me wrong... I'd lay pipe with any one of them but doesn't mean I wanna look at them twice while I'm doing it."
We laughed. T.J. came through the sliding doors with an arm full of his own lunch, a bag of nacho chips and three opened beers with a bottle of water. He handed Sunny her beer first, then gave his brother the next while setting the last one down next to his own chair. Blue grabbed the bag of chips as T.J. loosened his grip on it to reach over to me and handed me the bottle of water. He smiled to me as I looked to him in shock. Beginning to bend down to sit he caught
himself as if he remembered something. Reaching into his pocket he drew out a small apple and tossed it to me.
Sunny and Blue stared confusingly at the guy like he had two heads. She was hardly finished chewing what was in her mouth "You trying to tell her she's fat, T.J. or what?"
I closed my eyes as he nervously squirmed to get comfortable in the cushioned chair. He took a small sip of his beer to mask any signs of discomfort, but I could still see them. "What?.. Nahhh. Lil's just doesn't strike me as the junk food kind of girl. Hell, she could even stand to gain a few pounds."
I needed to change the topic fast, create a distraction. I swallowed my sip of water. "And look at their hair Sunny... no decent salons around here. The girls let it go until they can get home to have it taken care of. I was thinking you could take a s at mine when we get back. You know, nothing too drastic, maybe shorter, some color... I don't know. What do you think."
Sunny practically lit up, dropping her sandwich onto her plate in excitement. "I have some brand new color that I've been dying to try.. We'll cut it on an angle shorter in the back, and..."
Blue threw a chip in his open mouth and added "Hold on there... you might want to think about that before you do it. You're ol' man is anything like me, he likes it longer."
Sunny and I looked at each other and then back to Blue waiting for the rest of his sentence to help make sense of his comment. He didn't seem like the type to have a hair preference or anything, just so long as it was on a willing female.
He took another sip of his beer and sat back a little. Noticing our attention, he acted surprised. "What?... you know... reigns."
I rolled my eyes just as Sunny let out a mock sigh. "You're all pigs." We laughed. I rolled my sandwich wrapper and napkin together and sat back, resting on my arms behind me, stretching out soaking in some vitamin D.
"Just wait until tonight... you'll see these girls turn into runway models. No use wasting perfectly good makeup and clothes on classes, you know. We'll head downtown around eight and grab some dinner before we meet up with some of my friends for a drink."
Sunny loved my suggestion, and nodded enthusiastically. Blue shrugged his shoulders "Whatever... so long as you clear it by Jay first, I don't see why not. Might as well find me a sweet piece of ass to make my trip memorable."
T.J. chimed in from his corner seat. "I don't know... It's been a long day. You know, maybe we'll call it an early night, yeah?" Blue just tilted his chin down staring at his friend, lowering his sunglasses just a bit to get a better look at him.
"You O.K. there brother? You get hit on the fucking head or something? Since when do you turn down grade A college age pussy?"
T.J. seemed to realize how odd he was acting, especially in front of another club member. He straightened his shoulders and took one last swig of his drink. "Brother, I'm just recovering from the blonde sophomore riding me like a goddamned pogo stick while Lil's was in her meeting." He shifted his crotch with his hand for emphasis before adding "Need to get me some rest before I go looking for round two, you know what I mean?"
Blue looked satisfied with T.J.'s explanation and stood up collecting the trash from his meal. He took my handful of crumpled wrapper and nodded, "You make sure Jay knows your going for a night out and we're good to go, Lil's."
"I'd better crash a bit then, before we head out. Lil's you should probably do the same.. with bein' up early today and all, yeah?" T.J. called out as he followed Blue in the building. Sunny scrunched her forehead quizzically. Damn, this kid was about as sharp as a fucking rock. At this rate he'll be cutting up my food for me and tucking me in soon.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The late afternoon sunlight was flooding through my westward bedroom windows. Despite my lack of enthusiasm for T.J.'s veiled recommendation, I actually was tired. The last few days have been such a whirlwind of unexpected life changes that my mind has barely been able to keep up.
Slipping out of my sandals, I closed my curtains to the daylight outside and slipped under the covers for a little bit of rest. Sunny had shared the queen size bed last night, and I wasn't quite sure if she would be following my lead in catching a nap. I slid over to one side and left her plenty of space in case she decided to come in while I was sleeping. I fiddled with my phone and checked for missed calls or voicemails. None. Disappointment flashed briefly, before my fingers mindlessly selected a contact number in my directory and pressed on it.
The phone rang several times before it was directed to a generic voicemail prompt. Sighing, I ended the call and switched to the text message screen. Emily's text messages were brought up and I added a message.
ME: DID U SPEAK TO JESS?
I yawned, and stretched out my legs.
EMILY: HEY! YUP. JESS WILL B THERE
BOBBY TOO
9 PM
Bobby was Jessica's gay best friend. I had met him one night in the ladies bathroom at a pub downtown. Jessica was crying because some guy had stood her up, and Bobby was consoling her while trying to prevent any more damage to her eye makeup. I could barely keep from laughing like a damn hyena watching her whimper about how he could have been the love her life, while Bobby was dabbing at her eyes with a paper towel and trying to steady an eye pencil to touch up at the same time. There was some kind of analogy about not needing Mr. Right, but instead, looking for the Mr. Right Now that was going to rock her fucking world that night and she couldn't be scaring him away with raccoon eyes.
I had known Jessica from a few classes and thought it only polite to hand over my powder compact, not sure how it would be received. I was after all eavesdropping. Bobby took it graciously and even commented on how it was just the right shade for my complexion. We spruced Jessica up and all headed back out to the bar together. Jessica found a random hookup within minutes and left Bobby and I together to spend the rest of the night buying each other rounds of shots. Every girl should have a gay guy friend, they give the best blow job tips.
My phone buzzed abruptly with an incoming call. Jay's picture from my contacts flashed on the screen. I rolled over onto my side and slid the phone to my ear while accepting the call. "Hey baby.. I didn't think you'd be able to call back for awhile."
The reception wasn't fantastic but almost all of his words came through. "We just stopped to gas up and grab a bite. What's up princess?"
His voice soothed me like a lullaby as I lay there, the room darkening ever so slowly around me. "Not much. Thought I'd check in on you guys and see how things were going. You busy?" I closed my eyes and tried to picture Jay in front of me, speaking to me in person rather than who knows how many miles away.
I could hear Jay exhale into to receiver. "Baby you know I could never be too busy to talk to you. Just ordering some burgers while your brother takes a leak. You O.K.? Sound a bit blah."
My feet were flexing and pointing, trying to rid my body of the building pressure that his voice was igniting. "I'm O.K. I guess. Just a bit.. I don't know.. Lonely."
"I see.... How lonely?" Jay's voice dropped an octave and took on a raspiness that I knew meant he was definitely now giving me his undivided attention. "Tell me Lil's."
My legs were now slowly moving about trying to settle into a comfortable position. "Hmmm. Well let’s just say that I'm not so sore anymore... but I want to be."
Jay started to grumble deeply. "Lil's.. you're killing me. Baby I want to feel you so bad right now. When I get home I'm gonna show you how much. Can you wait till then? Keep yourself busy... get your stuff done so you can come home and get settled. That'll take your mind off it."
My hips circled in reflex to the sound of him. This was torture. "If I have to." I licked my lips imagining us all snuggled into his bed, making up for lost time.
Jay called out to Tiny in the background to tell him he needed another minute. "Baby you're giving me a hard on and unless your brother wants to see me take care of myself here and now I need you to talk me down."
I laughed, picturing Tiny waiting outside a bathroom doo
r for Jay, unaware of how his best friend was rubbing one out thinking of the guy’s little sister. "Alright, alright. I'm almost finished packing. We're gonna head downtown in a little while to grab some dinner and meet up with some friends to say goodbye."
"Sounds like a fun time... any guys you need to say good bye to?" The hidden message trailing below his words was not lost to me.
Jay was in no way homophobic, he just didn't associate with too many people outside of the club, and last I checked the Kingsmen had no gay brothers. "It should be fun. No guys that I know of other than Bobby, he's my gusband."
I could hear the pause on the other end "Your what? Did you say gusband?
"Yup.. my gay husband. I can't wait to introduce him to Sunny... they have the same fashion sense. It's gonna be epic" I explained. Even bikers should be up to date with the latest terminology.
Jay laughed "I can't wait to tell Tiny... Text me when you get home and behave yourself. You don't have a great track record when it comes to bars lately, you know."
Oh here we go.. I rolled my eyes "You send one measly bimbo to the E.R. and you never live it down, jeesh."
"Alright there slugger.. Just do yourself a favor and play nice. I'm already one hundred grand deep. At this rate your gonna bleed me dry." Jay could barely keep his voice serious.
I clicked my tongue in mock disgust. "Hey, I thought we were bartering here, hmm? Pretty sure I paid off at least a grand the other night."
Flashbacks of Jay holding my hips firmly in front of him while filling me deep, made me shutter. He must have sensed my need as he moaned briefly. "Baby you're worth every penny. Why don't you spend the next few days thinking of ways to knock your down some more when I get home."
So much for trying to change the topic. "Oh, I already know how to pay it off. Already planning your homecoming. Bobby's gonna give me some tips, you know."